24th January 2010 - The Volcano Challengers Summit!!!!
Amy's Story - I'm in bits.....We completed it and it nearly killed us... sooo hard I can't tell you...totally emotional experience, I cried 3 times during the weekend and about 8 times today...I'm a wreck!
The first night we set up camp on Pacaya and then we trekked right up to the top to see the lava in the dark... unbelievable experience... lava flowing like a river in front of us. Tears just streamed down my face...
The second day was the hardest day of my life... 8 or 9 hours of trekking up Acatenango with heavy backpacks... what a huge volcano! We all had moments of total and utter breakdown and everyone had moments of thinking they couldn't do it.
When we finally got to the summit the emotion was unbelievable. Got it all on camera- the DVD is going to be brilliant!
Hardly slept that night- it was minus something- all our water bottles turned to ice during the night.
On the third day we trekked over to Fuego... we got right up to the knife ridge- unbelievable drop offs either side and this huge active volcano in front of us...and guess what?....It erupted right in front of us!!!
We ran out of water too- had nothing left for the final 4 or 5 hours. Killer! Sian hurt her knee on the way back down and went down the last 3 hours of the volcano on her bum- what a legend. The guides carried her the last half hour. I was on my last last thread of energy pushing back the tears from my eyes... extreme emotion! It hurt....it really hurt!
Tuesday morning we all went to the primary school and had the most amazing thank you ceremony from the children.
We've all been crying all day- first the girls, then Taylor, John, Andy, Fitzy and Dave totally broke down over lunch too....emotional times!
EFTC are incredibly proud and grateful to all who took part.
The Guatemalan Ambassador Julie Chappell joined the group for a day, check out her blog here: http://blogs.fco.gov.uk/roller/chappell/
Check out our website for more news and pictures....coming very soon http://www.eftc.org.uk/TheBigVolcanoChallenge.htm
You can still sponsor the group for this massive achievement, just go to www.justgiving.com/thebigvolcanochallenge
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